Front gear for vehicles.



No. 763,700. PATENTED JUNE 28, 1904. G. G. STREICH. FRONT GEAR FORVEHICLES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 21. 1903.

NO MODEL. 2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

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PATENTED :mnnzs, 1904.

G. G. STREIGH.

Q FRONT GEAR FOR VEHICLE S.

no MODEL.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 21. 1903.

2 SHEETS-SHEET a.

I Unirnn mares Patented June 28, 1904.

ATENT QFFICE.

FRONT GEAR FOR VEHICLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 763,700, dated June 28,1904.

Application filed December 21, 1903. Serial No. 185,978. (No model.)

to that class of front gear covered in Letters Patent of the UnitedStates issued to me on December 17, 1901, No. 688,894, wherein provisionis made when one of the wheels of the vehicle strikes an obstruction inthe road-bed or passes down into a rut for distributing the pullingpower necessary to release said wheel from the obstruction or rutequally among all the animals.

One of the main objects contemplated by the present improvements is toprovide a construction whereby the evener is permitted to swing up ordown, and thereby provide for satisfactory operation notwithstanding anylengthening or stretching of the chains due to wear or other causes, theswinging movement under such circumstances permitting said chains to bepulled tight.

The invention, furthermore, contemplates as an object, in addition tothe provision for the swinging up and down of the evener, of means forpermitting said evener to move up and down vertically, and therebyallowing the same to properly adjust itself when the vehicle is beinghauled up or down hill and also adapting said evener to regulate itselfto varying sizes of horses.

I/Vith the above primary and other incidental objects in view the invention consists of the devices and parts or their equivalents, ashereinafter set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a front gearfor vehicles embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a cen trallongitudinal section of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a front view of a fragment ofthe evener and related parts. Fig. 41 is a detail view of one of thepoles, the front box thereof being in section. Fig. 5 is a fragmentaryview of the rear end of the pole. Fig. 6 is a detail view of one of thefront boxes. Fig. 7 is a fragmentary front view of the evener, showing amodified form of suspending device therefor; and Fig. 8 is an end viewof Fig. 7.

Referring to the drawings, the numerals 9 9 indicate the front Wheels;10, the axle; 11, the spring, and 12 the main portion of the frame ofthe front gear.

The numeral 13 indicates a movable evenerbar which is adapted to besupported from a fixed portion of the frame. In the form of constructionshown in Figs. 1 to 3 of the drawings this evener is so suspended as tobe capable of a lateral sliding movement, an upand-down swingingmovement, and a vertical movement up and down. To provide for theseseveral movements, I secure to the under side of thehounds li-a plate1.5. Pivoted centrally to this plate 15 on a pivot-bolt I6 is an underplate 17, the opposite ends of said under plate being curved around theends of the plate 15 and extended a short distance over the upper sideof said plate. To the under side of plate 17 are secured hanger-straps18, of elongated U form, with the bends of the loops lowermost. of thesehangers, yet only one may be employed or more than two, if desired. Ifonly one is used, it is desirable that it should have considerablewidth. Secured to the upper side of the evener-barare lugs 19 19,provided with openings which receive and form bearings for the ends of abar 20, said bar extending through the loops formed by the U-shapedhangers.

The numerals 2121 indicate the draft-chains or other suitable connectingdevices. The

forwardends of these chains are connected to and the evener, therefore,in such form would have three whiffletreos (not shown) connectedthereto, the intermediate whiffletrcc being connected to the evener at apoint between the two poles or thills 2e 24 and the outer While I haveshown two whiflietrees to the evener at points beyond the outer sides ofthe poles or thills and so as to position the central horse between thepoles and the outside horses outside of said poles.

In the operation of the parts thus far described should one of thewheels of the vehicle strike an obstruction in the road-bed or pass intoa rut the major portion of the strain would not be thrown on the animalon the side of the vehicle so obstructed, but the draft or strain wouldbe equally distributed on all the horses, and this by reason of thecapability of the evener to slide laterally. For instance, if the wheel9 should strike an obstruction or pass into a rut the chain on theobstructed side of the vehicle will become tight or practically rigid,while the other chain will become'slack, and with the continued pull ofthe animals from the evener 13 said evener will slide in a transversedirection away from the obstructed wheel, and thereby all draft will beexerted directly from said obstructed wheel, and when the wheel ispassing over the obstruction or out of the rut the opposite chain, whichwas before loose, immediately becomes tight and the chain which wasbefore tight becomes slack, while the evener slides in the oppositedirection to that first explained. In this manner the pull of theanimals is equally distributed and at the same time whipping of the poleis entirely avoided. Of course if the wheel 9' should become obstructedthe reverse operation takes place.

Besides accomplishing the above function my present improvements, byreason of the provision of the crank-bar 20, permit the evener to swingup, and thereby draw the chains 21 21 tight should they become slack byreason of wear, and hence it follows that the equalization of thepulling power of the animal when a wheel of the vehicle strikes anobstruction or passes into a rut is obtained notwithstanding theslackening of the chains from wear or other causes. It will be noticedthat the evener-bar can swing upwardly on the pivots afforded by thepassing of the ends of the rod 20 into the bearings 19 or by the pivotafforded by the rod 20 resting loosely in the lower bends of the hangers18.

My present improvements furthermore provide for the evener raising orlowering in order to adjust itself not only to varying-sized horses, butalso to inequalitiesv in the roadbed or to an up-and-down grade in theroadbedas, for instance, a steep elevation or hill. In such case the bar20 will raise or lower in the loops formed by the hangers 18 and carrythe evener-bar therewith, and consequently said evener-bar isautomatically adjusted to such variations. By reason of the provision ofthe pivot-bolt 16 the evener-bar is also permitted to swinghorizontally, and thereby secure freedom in turning.

The modified form of construction illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8 has allthe movements of the evener-bar illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive,and in addition thereto has a straight or sliding backward-and-forwardmovement. The up-and-down or vertical movement of this modified form ofconstruction, however, is more limited than the up-and-down or verticalmovement in the other form of construction, and consequently thismodified form is more applicable to ordinary streets or to sections ofcountry devoid of hills or elevations and to ordinary sizes of horses.Referring to this modified form of construction, thehounds 14 haveconnected to their under sides the plate 15; but the under pivoted plate17 is omitted. The opposite ends of plate 15 extend laterally a slightdistance beyond the hounds and have secured thereto the ends of straps25 25, said straps being curved forwardly and thence bent rearwardlybeneath and below the hounds and thence bent upwardly and secured to theunder sides of said hounds. The bar 20 extends over the straight underportions of the straps and is consequently free to slide laterallythereover and carry the evener-bar in the same direction. The evenerbaris also capable of swinging up and down on the pivots afforded by theengagement of the ends of the bar 20 with the bearings 19 and by theengagement of the main portion of said bar with the straight underportions of the straps 25 and also an up-and-down or vertical movementpermitted by the play of the rod 20 above the straps 17. Attention isalso directed to the fact that in this modified form the evener-bar iscapable of a forward-andrearward movement, by reason of the fact thatthe bar 20 is slidable forwardly and rearwardly on the straight portionsof the straps 25.

The drawings also show means for attaching the thills or poles in suchmanner as to make them readily interchangeable, so that in case a polebends downwardly, as frequently occurs, said pole can be removed fromits boxes or sockets and turned upside down, or with the concavity ordeflection of the bend uppermost, while the other pole can be insertedin the sockets formerly occupied by the first-referred-to pole. It is awell-known fact that the poles of a vehicle on account of their ownweight and the weight of the chains frequently bend dmmwardly to such anextent as to strike the legs of the horses. Heretofore when this hasoccurred it has been customary to entirely remove the bent pole andsubstitute another straight pole therefor-obviousl y an expensiveexpedient, which my construction now about to be described entirelyobviates. Referring to this construction, the front boxes for the polesare indicated by the numerals 26 26. These boxes are preferablyconnected to the main portion of the frame 12 by means of arms, one ofsaid arms, 27, extending from the inner side of each box and bolted orotherwise secured to the forward bar of the frame, and the other arm,28,

extending rearwardly and bolted or otherwise secured to the side bar ofthe frame. For convenience the steps 29 29 of the vehicle may projectlaterally from the outer sides of these boxes. Located in line with andto the rear of the front boxes and secured to the sides of the framejust above the axle are rear boxes or sockets 3O 30. are in linecentrally axially, and said boxes have square angles. The poles orthills 24 are passed through the front boxes and pushed rearwardl yuntil their rear ends enter the rear boxes, and When the poles are soengaged they are removably held in place by means of pins 31, passedthrough openings in the front boxes and registering openings in thepoles. The pins,if desired, may have short chains attached thereto, saidchains being also attached to the poles in order to prevent the pinsfrom being lost. From the fact that there is but a limitedspace for therear boxes 30 they are required to be smaller than the front boxes inorder to secure the alinement, and hence it is necessary to taper therear portions of the poles on opposite lateral sides thereof, as mostclearly shown in Fig. 1. From the construction described it will beevident that when a pole bends downwardly from any cause the said polecan be readily removed by taking out the pin 31, the said pole thenturned upside down or with the concavity of the bend or deflectionuppermost and said pole in such position then inserted in the boxes onthe other side of the vehicle after first removing the pole from thatside, and the latter pole is then inserted in the sockets from which thefirst-referred-to pole was removed. It is necessary that the bent poleshould be transferred from one side of the vehicle to the other,inasmuch as should it be turned upside down and inserted in the samesockets which it previously occupied the rings and other connectionscarried thereby would be incorrectly positioned. From the fact that theboxes or sockets have square angles and are in line centrally axiallythe changing of the poles in the manner above pointed out, so as torectify bends therein, can be readily accomplished.

hat I claim as my invention is 1. The combination of a frame, an axle,an evener-bar carried by the frame, and constructed to have a slidingmovement transversely of the frame, and an 11 p-and-down swingingmovement, and draft-chains having their rear ends connected,respectively, to the front axle near opposite ends of said axle, andtheir forward ends converged and connected to a central point of theevener-bar.

2. The combination of a frame, an axle, an evener-bar carried by theframe and constructed to have a sliding movement transversely of theframe and a vertical up-anddown movement, and draft-chains having theirrear ends connected, respectively, to the front axle near opposite endsof said axle, and their forward The front and rear boxes ends convergedand connected to a central point of the evener-bar.

3. The combination of a frame, an axle, an evener-bar carried by theframe and constructed to have a sliding movement transversely of theframe, an up-anddown swinging movement, and a vertical up-and-downmovement, and draft-chains having their rear ends connected,respectively, to the front axle near opposite ends of said axle, andtheir forward ends converged and connected to a central point of theevener-bar.

4. The combination of a frame, an axle, an evener-bar carried by theframe and constructed to have a sliding movement transversely of theframe, an up-and-down swinging movement, and a forward-and-rearwardsliding movement, and draft-chains having their rear ends connected,respectively, to the front axle near opposite ends of said axle, andtheir forward ends converged and connected to a central point of theevener-bar.

5. The combination of a frame, an axle, a hanger depending from theframe, an evenerbar, a guide-bar pivoted at opposite ends to theevener-bar and extending through the loop of the hanger, anddraft-chains having their rear ends connected, respectively, to thefront axle near opposite ends of said axle, and their forward endsconverged and connected to the evener-bar.

6. The combination of a frame, an axle, a plurality of hangers dependingfrom the frame, an evener-bar, a guide-bar pivoted at opposite ends tothe evener-bar and extending through the loops of the hangers, anddraftchains having their rear ends connected, re-

spectively, to the front axle near opposite ends of said axle, and theirforward ends converged and connected to the evener-bar.

7. The combination of a frame, an axle, an evener-bar carried by theframe and constructed to have a sliding movement transversely of theframe, an up-and-down swinging movemen t, and a forward-and-rearwa rdmovement, and draft-chains having their rear ends connected,respectively, to the front axle near opposite ends of said axle, andtheir forward ends converged and connected to a central point of theevener-bar.

8. The combination of a frame, an axle, and an evener-bar carried by theframe, and constructed to have an up-and-down swinging movement.

9. The combination of a frame,-an axle, and an evener-bar carried by theframe and constructed to have a vertical up-and-down movement.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES Gr. STREICH.

Witnesses:

ANNA F. SoHMm'rnAUnn, A. L. Monsnnn IIO

